Ties
by aurora-n-m
Summary: a series of oneshots based on the friendships of the teen titans, and the ties that bind them together.
1. Dance

Ties: a look at the ties binding the titans together

Chapter one- dance

Every morning, they danced. Never touching, yet still they danced. Their moves where carefully choreographed, and practiced simply by living.

Each would wake sharply at 7:00. It was a silent agreement, one wished to wake earlier, and one wished to wake later, and they settled without words the problem.

The others watched the dance, robin sitting with star, helping her with the daily crossword. It was a way to improve her english. Raven silently drank her tea, which she was always sure to get before their dance began.

However, it was not like any dance studio would wish for them to perform.

With all the shouting over meat and tofu, and the occasional foul word that earned a glare from their masked leader, they would have never been at home performing swan lake.

Yet still, they danced around the kitchen, avoiding the other's 'poisonous' food with the utmost care. One's food to the other was a dangerous poison. For one to eat meat would simply be cannibalism, and for the other to eat tofu would be a reminder of how things are so easily replaced.

Their dance was in no means graceful, with the barreling into the kitchen and the mad rush for the pots and pans, and the race to get each of their food done first. Occasional food was thrown, but the thrower was careful to never actually hit the other. That would have been rude.

Because it was just a dance.


	2. Cosmos

Chapter two, Cosmos-

Every night, since they had learned each other's secrets thanks to the puppet king, they had a tradition. They would meet on the roof, raven entering the roof, occasionally passing Robin on his way down. While the sunset was a time for romance, the dark was a time for sisterhood. Robin would watch the sunset with Starfire sometimes, but others he would be too busy.

Raven always showed, and Starfire was always waiting.

They sat at the edge of the tower, side by side, waiting. When the sun finally sank below the sea, they waited some more. When the sky got dark enough, they laid back and looked up at the sky.

They talked.

Each would tell the other a story of their life before they were titans, before they left their homes.

Starfire would tell of Tamaran, and her sister and brother, her father and mother, and galfore. She told of the purple skies and all the animal. the festivals celebrating everything from birth to death, to love to friendship, that she had so loved. She told of the great battles fought all over the cosmos, and the school she attended.

Raven would tell of Azarath, of the monks, of Azar, and of her mother. She told of the golden building, the silver streets, the three moons in the sky. She told of the books, all the books in the great library that she had so loved. She told of the way Azar calmed disputes all over the cosmos, and the training she had gone through to learn control.

It was their tradition, and the others never interfered. Even when the occasional object blew up, they never mentioned it, knowing that in the end, It healed more then it broke.

The girls always waiting until it was dark for many reasons. They easily could have done this waiting for the sun to rise, but they waiting for dark. It hid their tears, whether they be happy or sad one.

The dark of the sky revealed the stars. And it let them imagine that one of those stars in that infinite sky was their home, both knowing that it wasn't. One was too far away to be seen, and one was destroyed.

The dark hid the tears of the two girls, two girls with extraordinary gifts, two girls with their shares of pain, two girls closer then many blood sister could ever be, two girls who's hope was just as infinite as the sky they stared into through tears stained eyes.


	3. Train Wreck

Chapter Three- Train wreck

Every morning, they were the first to wake. The 'dark' titans rose before the others, even before Cyborg in preparation for the morning breakfast battle, and met in the training room. Robin often wondered how Raven functioned on so little sleep, but deduced that her tea must be filled with caffeine. Raven also wondered how Robin functioned on so little sleep, knowing he spent most of the night doing research, but she figured all those years working with Batman must have diluted his need for sleep.

Both knew all they probably would ever know about the other, what with one having been inside the others mind, and the other one rescuing the other from the pits of hell, and all that. Robin put in the CD they both liked, not too head banger for Raven but not too… whatever it was the Raven listened too.

Robin had come across Raven practicing early one morning not long after the team was formed. She had explained that it was a type of meditative 'karate'. It was the best way she could explain it, and told him of how she would watch people (he would later learn that she meant the other children she was never allowed near) practicing the ancient art. She had taught him, not surprised by how quickly the martial arts master caught on. Every morning since, they met in the gym to complete the circuit, which was what one work-out in the ancient practice was called, before the others awoke and they went to breakfast.

They went through all the motions, performing an ancient art form of Raven's homeland.

For Raven, it was a reminder of her home, and a way to make a statement that she was normal like the Azarathian children who used to perform the same circuit everyday. And to Robin it was a reminder of Batman, his mentor, and a way to relax while keeping his secrets, well, secret.

They were training, and keeping the train wreck of emotions inside. A brother and sister, bound not by blood, but by hop that someday this training wouldn't be needed.

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this chapter i think is probably my least favorite of all the ones i have so far. i had the idea in my head, but i wasn't going into the computer wonderfully. review if you can please.


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